Destination 2D is an innovative semiconductor company focused on graphene technology. The company recently announced that it has successfully achieved wafer-level synthesis of high-quality graphene under conditions compatible with traditional semiconductor processes. This technological breakthrough means that graphene will become the first 2D material in the semiconductor industry to be applied to mainstream products, potentially revolutionizing the way existing semiconductors are designed and manufactured.
Graphene: a key material for future semiconductors
Graphene is a material made up of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal grid. Graphene is not only the thinnest material known, but it also has superior electrical conductivity, high temperature resistance, and extremely high mechanical strength. Due to these remarkable properties, graphene is considered an important breakthrough in the field of semiconductors, which can solve some of the problems encountered by current materials in electronic devices, especially in the interconnection part of chips.
One of the major challenges facing the semiconductor industry today is the selection of materials for the chip interconnect. As the chip manufacturing process continues to advance, the chip size continues to decrease, and the traditional copper interconnect materials have been difficult to meet the demand. The increased resistivity of copper at low geometries leads to a decrease in chip performance, especially for high-performance computing chips such as processors (e.g., CPUs and GPUs).
Limitations of copper: The semiconductor industry is in dire need of new materials
Traditional copper interconnect materials have been used for more than 30 years, but as Moore's Law advances and electron migration effects intensify, copper becomes less and less suitable as chip sizes continue to shrink. When the size of the chip is less than 15 nanometers, the resistivity of copper rises sharply, which can significantly affect the performance and reliability of the circuit, resulting in increased power consumption and even the normal operation of the chip. Especially in computing-intensive chips such as GPUs and CPUs, copper materials are close to the limit of their commercial use. Therefore, finding a new alternative material, especially one with lower resistivity and higher reliability, has become an urgent problem to be solved in the semiconductor industry.
Figure：Destination 2D breakthrough graphene technology（image：semiconductordigest）
Innovation of Destination 2Dtechnology:
Destination 2D's technological innovation lies in the fact that they have successfully synthesized high-quality graphene under CMOS-compatible process conditions. This breakthrough technology eliminates the need for high temperatures or the transfer of graphene from other substrates to semiconductor substrates as is the case with traditional graphene manufacturing processes, thus avoiding the technical challenges of graphene integration in the past. In addition, this technology can also realize the synthesis of multilayer graphene directly onto the dielectric substrate at low temperatures, ensuring that the performance of graphene is not compromised, and there will be no problems such as cracks and warping.
It is worth mentioning that Destination 2D's technology significantly reduces the resistivity of graphene in circuits through intercalation doping and edge contact, which has advantages over traditional copper materials. This makes the application of graphene as an interconnect material in semiconductor chips more feasible.
CoolC GT300 device: Advancing the industrial use of graphene
In order to realize the practical application of this technology, Destination 2D has also developed a device called CoolC GT300™. This equipment adopts the company's unique graphene synthesis process, which can synthesize high-quality graphene at low temperatures, avoiding the high temperature problems in the previous graphene process. The CoolC GT300 device not only enables the direct synthesis of graphene at the wafer level, but also solves the technical bottlenecks caused by wafer transfer and heat treatment. The device is now available to order for interested customers, marking the gradual industrial application of graphene technology.
With this device, Destination 2D will not only provide the semiconductor industry with new interconnect materials, but also significantly improve the energy efficiency and performance of chips. Compared to traditional copper interconnect technologies, graphene has lower resistivity, better reliability, and improved energy efficiency, resulting in energy savings of up to 80%.
Prospects and industry implications of graphene interconnect technology
Destination 2D's graphene technology breakthrough marks a major revolution in material selection for the semiconductor industry. In the future, graphene may become a mainstream material in chip design, especially in fields with high computing needs such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and quantum computing. By using graphene as an interconnect material, semiconductor chips will be able to achieve higher performance, lower power consumption, and longer service life.
In addition, Destination 2D's technology will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of chip manufacturing, as its process is not only compatible with existing CMOS processes, but also does not require expensive high-temperature treatment or additional process steps. Therefore, semiconductor manufacturers in the future may be more inclined to use graphene as an interconnect material to improve the competitiveness of their products.
Conclusion
Destination 2D's technological innovations open up new opportunities for the semiconductor industry. By successfully applying graphene to the CMOS process, the bottleneck problem of traditional copper interconnect materials has been solved, and the wide application of graphene in chip manufacturing has been promoted. With the continuous development of technology and the launch of the CoolC GT300 device, graphene will play an increasingly important role in future high-performance computing and smart devices.
